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[The Managing Editor of Brunei Times asked me to write about the regatta in time for the Brunei River Regatta last Sunday. Usually my article on my column The Golden Legacy is every Monday but because the regatta was on Sunday, the column appeared on Sunday too and was published on 22nd January 2012. This article is based on a 2007 article which I wrote about Berjanawari which is the Brunei word used for regatta in Brunei.]

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Memories of the Brunei Regatta
by Rozan Yunos

THE Ministry of Home Affairs' decision to revive the Brunei River Regatta was certainly appropriate. The Brunei River has always been choc-a-bloc with activities. Though today's activities have been focused on using the river as the waterways with perahu tambang criss-crossing the river to bring the residents of the Kampong Ayer to the other side and vice versa. In the old days, there would be fishermen and also boat races along the river.

[The Oxford Business Group had this report about Brunei on 19th January 2012]

Brunei: The Year in Review

Brunei Darussalam’s economy closed out 2011 in good health, with GDP rising, inflation under control and plans to build on existing strengths and develop new opportunities. However, concerns remain over the slowing global economic growth and how this may impact the country.

Final figures have yet to be issued, but by most accounts the Sultanate’s economy had a steady year in 2011. In October the IMF lowered its growth forecast for the country’s economy, predicting that GDP would rise by 2.8% in 2011 and 2.2% in 2012, down from the 3.1% and 2.7% expansion the agency predicted in April.

The IMF’s revised forecast for Brunei Darussalam’s GDP puts the country’s expected rate of expansion below that projected for the global economy by the UN, which predicted a worldwide growth of 2.6% in a report issued in early December 2011.

I first saw the title of this book in a list of references for one article in either Beriga (published twice a year by Dewan Bahasa) or Pusaka (published yearly by the Brunei History Centre), I can't remember which. I thought to myself then, I must find this book. That was about three or four years ago. I could never find it. Sometime last year, I saw this book being sold by Dewan Bahasa in Kuala Belait and I immediately bought it. Being a Dewan Bahasa book, the book is more than affordable. The list price is $4 but Dewan Bahasa sold it for $3.20 which is a 20% discount. The book was originally published in 2003 but Dewan Bahasa rencently republished it.
The reason why I wanted to read this book obviously was the title - A Few Legends in the Brunei Muara District. I wanted to make sure that I know of all the legends. When I finally got to read it, for me I found it greatly disappointing. It is a very short book and about 2/3 of it is spent on the theory of legends etc which would …

I purchased this relatively old Bandar Seri Begawan photograph recently on the internet. This is a fairly common photograph and I have shown several versions about it. This view was taken from the mosque and over the years I have shown photographs and postcards showing the same view. But what I like about this particular photograph is the size of the photo, it was an 8R black and white and all the details came out well. This photograph was around the 1970s.

If you look closely behind the Borneo Theatre, you can make out the vegetables market. The filling station at the end of the road was still there, I remember that filling station was still there until the late 1980s as I had already started working at the Ministry of Communications then.

The old Police Barracks in the foreground was completely demolished to make way for the expansion of the Padang for the 1984 Independence Declaration and of course later on for the Yayasan Building project in the early 1990s. All the wooden shops…